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Longreads Best of 2019: Science and Nature

2019 年最佳长读:科学与自然
2019 年最佳长读:科学与自然  ·  2019-12-12  ·  官方页

Deborah BlumDeborah Blum is the director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT and publisher of Undark magazine.

黛博拉·布鲁姆黛博拉·布鲁姆 (Deborah Blum) 是麻省理工学院奈特科学新闻项目的主任,也是《Undark》杂志的出版商。

## ‘We Have Fire Everywhere’ (Jon Mooallem, The New York Times Magazine)

## “我们到处都有火”(Jon Mooallem,纽约时报杂志)

## Our Secret Delta (Tony Bartelme and Glenn Smith, The Post and Courier)

## 我们的秘密三角洲(Tony Bartelme 和 Glenn Smith,《华盛顿邮报》和《信使》)

One of the most interesting trends in climate change reporting is the way writers now quietly and deftly weave its effects into the background of natural disaster stories, from the rapid intensification of hurricanes in the Atlantic to the increasingly explosive wildfires in the west.

气候变化报道中最有趣的趋势之一是,作家现在悄悄而巧妙地将其影响融入自然灾害故事的背景中,从大西洋飓风的迅速加剧到西部日益爆炸的野火。

I’d like to pay tribute to two outstanding examples of this in the past year.

我想向过去一年中的两个杰出例子表示敬意。

One is environmental writer Jon Mooallem’s stunning narrative portrait of last year’s devastating Camp Fire in northern California, which killed at least 85 people, burned through nearly 240 square miles, and destroyed almost 20,000 buildings including almost all of the small, wooded town of Paradise.

其中一本是环保作家 Jon Mooallem 对去年加利福尼亚州北部毁灭性的营火进行的令人惊叹的叙述,这场火灾造成至少 85 人死亡,烧毁了近 240 平方英里的土地,摧毁了近 20,000 座建筑物,其中包括几乎所有树木繁茂的天堂小镇。

Mooallem’s story “We Have Fire Everywhere” is a vivid, terrifying, edge-of-your seat reconstruction of desperate attempts to escape a literal inferno.

穆阿勒姆的故事《我们到处都是火》生动、恐怖、令人紧张地再现了人们为逃离真正的地狱而绝望的尝试。

It moves so beautifully and is so well-paced that you almost don’t realize that he’s also slipping in a lot of very smart fire science, exploring the ways in which climate change is making wildfires exponentially more dangerous.

它的动作如此优美,节奏如此之快,以至于你几乎没有意识到他还融入了许多非常聪明的火灾科学,探索气候变化如何使野火变得更加危险。

Describing one harrowing moment in a line of burning cars, he writes, “Fisher wasn’t just trapped in a car; she was trapped in the 21st century.”

在描述一排着火的汽车中的悲惨时刻时,他写道:“费舍尔不仅被困在车里,她还被困在 21 世纪。”

The other is “Our Secret Delta,” a haunting exploration of South Carolina’s threatened Santee River delta, published this September in the Charleston paper, The Post and Courier.

另一本是《我们的秘密三角洲》,对南卡罗来纳州受威胁的桑蒂河三角洲进行了令人难忘的探索,于今年九月发表在查尔斯顿报纸《邮报》和《信使》上。

It’s a real pleasure in these days when we worry so much about the fate of local journalism to see this paper shine in so many important ways.

这些天,当我们非常担心当地新闻业的命运时,看到这篇论文在如此多的重要方面大放异彩,真是令人高兴。

This project, led by Tony Bartelme and Glenn Smith, is visually gorgeous and told with the grace of an old-time Southern story, allowing the delta, its history and culture, its fragile waters, to gradually unspool like the winding path of a river itself.

这个项目由托尼·巴特尔姆(Tony Bartelme)和格伦·史密斯(Glenn Smith)领导,视觉效果华丽,并以古老的南方故事的优雅讲述,让三角洲、它的历史和文化、它脆弱的水域,像河流本身蜿蜒的路径一样逐渐展开。

The writers create a memorable portrait of an old and essential ecosystem under new threats.

作者们描绘了一个令人难忘的古老而重要的生态系统在新威胁下的形象。

Perhaps the most ominous threat is the rise of coastal waters as they reshape the state, yet another reminder that climate change stalks our present as well as our future.

也许最不祥的威胁是沿海水域的崛起,因为它们重塑了国家,这再次提醒我们,气候变化困扰着我们的现在和未来。

Elizabeth RushElizabeth Rush is the author of Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore and instructor of creative nonfiction at Brown University.

伊丽莎白·拉什 (Elizabeth Rush) 伊丽莎白·拉什 (Elizabeth Rush) 是《崛起:新美国海岸的快讯》一书的作者,也是布朗大学非小说类创意教师。

## Climate Signs (Emily Raboteau, The New York Review of Books)

## 气候迹象(Emily Raboteau,《纽约书评》)

When Emily Raboteau’s son becomes obsessed with extreme weather events after a family outing to the “Nature’s Fury” exhibition at the natural history museum in New York, she wonders how much she should shield her five-year-old from conversations around climate change.

当艾米丽·拉博托 (Emily Raboteau) 的儿子全家去纽约自然历史博物馆参观“自然之怒”展览后,她的儿子开始对极端天气事件着迷,她想知道应该在多大程度上保护她五岁的孩子免受有关气候变化的讨论。

It is a query she carries with her as she embarks on a city-wide pilgrimage to visit each installation of a public art project called “Climate Signals” wherein the artist hijacks highway traffic signs, rewriting their commonplace warnings with uncanny proclamations of new hazards ahead.

当她踏上全市范围的朝圣之旅,参观一个名为“气候信号”的公共艺术项目的每一个装置时,她带着这个疑问,在这个项目中,艺术家劫持了高速公路交通标志,用对未来新危险的不可思议的宣告来改写它们常见的警告。

In Saint Nicolas Park in Harlem, the sign reads: CLIMATE CHANGE AT WORK.

在哈莱姆区的圣尼古拉斯公园,标牌上写着:气候变化正在发生。

At Hudson River Yards, the yellow lettering spells out an even more dire threat: CLIMATE DENIAL KILLS.

在哈德逊河造船厂,黄色字体说明了一个更可怕的威胁:气候否认导致死亡。

In this expertly rendered essay –– gracefully weaving between the personal and critical, the scientific and political –– Raboteau attempts to make sense of what it means to raise a child in a world that is coming apart.

在这篇精心呈现的文章中——优雅地交织在个人与批判、科学与政治之间——拉博托试图理解在一个分崩离析的世界中养育一个孩子意味着什么。

It is a question many have but that is all too often addressed in reductive, late capitalist logic in which our human hearts are not taken into consideration.

这是许多人都关心的问题,但往往以简化的晚期资本主义逻辑来解决,而没有考虑到我们人类的内心。

Emily RaboteauEmily Raboteau is a professor of creative writing at the City College of New York, and the author of several nontraditional longform essays, including a year-long Twitter thread on climate change, @emilyraboteau.

艾米丽·拉博托 (Emily Raboteau) 艾米丽·拉博托 (Emily Raboteau) 是纽约城市学院创意写作教授,也是多篇非传统长篇文章的作者,其中包括长达一年的关于气候变化的 Twitter 帖子 @emilyraboteau。

## After the Storm (Mary Annaïse Heglar, Guernica)

## 暴风雨过后(玛丽·安娜伊丝·赫格拉,格尔尼卡)

Mary Annaïse Heglar’s “After the Storm” stood out to me as a knockout personal essay on climate this year.

玛丽·安娜伊丝·赫格拉 (Mary Annaïse Heglar) 的《暴风雨过后》对我来说是一篇出色的气候个人文章。

Heglar is building a body of important work marrying climate awareness with social, environmental, and racial justice.

黑格拉尔正在开展一系列重要工作,将气候意识与社会、环境和种族正义结合起来。

In this piece, which ran in Guernica in October, she frames her harrowing experience of Hurricane Katrina, along with her family in the Mississippi River region, as the lens through which she now sees the climate movement as an activist and director of publications at the National Resources Defense Council.

在这篇十月份在格尔尼卡发表的文章中,她描述了自己在卡特里娜飓风中的悲惨经历,以及她在密西西比河地区的家人的经历,作为她现在作为国家资源保护委员会的活动家和出版物总监来看待气候运动的镜头。

She weaves together the overtly racist news coverage of that storm, the fact that it made landfall the day after the 50th anniversary of Emmett Till’s murder, and the inequitable suffering of New Orleans’ Black population to illuminate the layers of historical injustice magnified by the climate crisis, “covered in the fingerprints of slavery and Jim Crow and colonialism and genocide and patriarchy.

她将这场风暴的公然种族主义新闻报道、埃米特·蒂尔被谋杀 50 周年后的第二天风暴登陆的事实,以及新奥尔良黑人所遭受的不公平苦难编织在一起,以阐明因气候危机而放大的历史不公正层层,“覆盖着奴隶制、吉姆·克劳、殖民主义、种族灭绝和父权制的印记。”

It’s what happens when large swaths of people are not only systematically ‘left out,’ but forced to be their own gravediggers and pallbearers.” This should be required reading for those interested in how equity and equality are pivotal to successful climate change mitigation and adaptation.

当大批人不仅被系统地‘排除在外’,而且被迫成为自己的掘墓人和抬棺人时,就会发生这种情况。”对于那些对公平和平等如何对于成功减缓和适应气候变化至关重要的人感兴趣的人来说,这应该是必读书。

Mary Annaïse HeglarMary Annaïse Heglar is a climate justice writer and communications professional based in New York City.

玛丽·安娜伊丝·赫格拉 (Mary Annaïse Heglar) 玛丽·安娜伊丝·赫格拉 (Mary Annaïse Heglar) 是一位居住在纽约市的气候正义作家和传播专业人士。

## The End Times Are Here, and I Am at Target (Hayes Brown, The Outline)

## 末日已至,我已达到目标(海耶斯·布朗,《大纲》)

Perhaps the most perplexing paradox of climate change is its ability to be both overwhelmingly terrifying and mind-numbingly ordinary.

也许气候变化最令人困惑的悖论是它既令人极度恐惧又令人麻木的普通。

Especially in the past few years, as denial has become less of a viable option and even delusion has slipped from our fingers, the climate crisis with its alarming headlines and horror stories has become…

尤其是在过去的几年里,随着否认已经不再是一个可行的选择,甚至妄想也从我们的指缝中溜走,气候危机及其令人震惊的头条新闻和恐怖故事已经变得……

normal.

正常。

The steady drumbeat to the banality of our lives.

稳定的鼓点敲响了我们平庸的生活。

Hayes Brown manages to capture that drumbeat in this masterful essay, isolating its sound out of the symphony with surgical precision.

海耶斯·布朗在这篇精彩的文章中成功地捕捉到了鼓声,以外科手术般的精准将其声音从交响乐中分离出来。

As he runs regular errands in a regular Target on a regular, if unusually hot, summer day in Brooklyn, the climate crisis reverberates in the back of his mind, filtering into every choice of every item, if he allows himself to think of it.

在布鲁克林一个异常炎热的夏日,当他在常规的塔吉特百货定期出差时,气候危机在他的脑海中回荡,渗透到每件物品的每一个选择中,如果他允许自己思考的话。

As someone who exists as a bonafide “climate person,” I love the fresh eye that Hayes brings to the subject.

作为一个真正的“气候人士”,我喜欢海斯为这个主题带来的新鲜视角。

He gives voice to the haunting bewilderment, the guilt of surrender, and the uncertainty that lies within the cracks of the certainty.

他表达了挥之不去的困惑、投降的内疚以及确定性裂缝中的不确定性。

His essay reminds us of the dullness of our collective heartbreak as we stare into our manmade abyss.

他的文章提醒我们,当我们凝视人造深渊时,我们集体心碎的沉闷。

Mikael AwakeMikael Awake‘s work has appeared in GQ, Bookforum, ArtNews, The Common, and most recently McSweeney’s 58: 2040 A.D.

Mikael AwakeMikael Awake 的作品曾出现在《GQ》、《Bookforum》、《ArtNews》、《The Common》以及最近 McSweeney 的《58: 2040 A.D.》上。

He teaches at Lafayette College.

他在拉斐特学院任教。

## Indigenous Knowledge Has Been Warning Us About Climate Change for Centuries (Malcolm Harris, Pacific Standard)

## 几个世纪以来,土著知识一直在警告我们气候变化(马尔科姆·哈里斯,太平洋标准)

This piece by Malcolm Harris has stuck with me for a few reasons.

马尔科姆·哈里斯(Malcolm Harris)的这篇文章让我印象深刻有几个原因。

It came out in Pacific Standard, which was an important outlet for environmental writing before it was shut down this past August.

它发表在《太平洋标准》杂志上,该杂志是环境写作的重要渠道,但去年八月被关闭。

(How the crisis in media has interacted with the climate crisis is a subject for another day.) The essay is an elegant synthesis of entomology, economics, and colonial history that places indigenous knowledge at the foundation of the climate conversation — not as ornament, but as central anti-capitalist critique, as timeless technology.

(媒体危机如何与气候危机相互作用,这是另一天的主题。)这篇文章是昆虫学、经济学和殖民历史的优雅综合,将本土知识置于气候对话的基础上——不是作为装饰品,而是作为核心的反资本主义批评,作为永恒的技术。

Such a piece could inspire the allotment of more time and money — in academic, political, media, and cultural spaces — for deeper dives into indigenous environmentalism and systems of knowledge.

这样的作品可以激发人们在学术、政治、媒体和文化领域投入更多的时间和金钱,以更深入地研究本土环保主义和知识体系。

It made me dream of a 1619 Project-style series devoted to un-suppressing those narratives, and made me think about Standing Rock and Mauna Kea and how the violent suppression of indigenous activism works hand-on-musket with the suppression of indigenous thought.

它让我梦想着一部 1619 年计划风格的系列,致力于解压这些叙事,让我思考立岩和莫纳克亚山,以及对土著激进主义的暴力镇压如何与对土著思想的镇压紧密结合。

Harris is a sharp and funny writer, which is why this story seemed something of a departure in approach and tone, and I appreciated it.

哈里斯是一位敏锐而有趣的作家,这就是为什么这个故事在方法和语气上似乎有些背离,我很欣赏它。

I wasn’t familiar with the work of Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, who posits the crucial idea that what we call climate change is not a new challenge, but one as old as the New World, “part of a much longer series of ecological catastrophes caused by colonialism and accumulation-based society.” The piece resonated with my feeling that imagination is a function of collective human memory, or as Harris says, paraphrasing sociologist Nikitah Okembe-RA Imani, “[t]hose who study what has been suppressed can see the future.”

我不熟悉莉安·贝塔萨莫萨克·辛普森 (Leanne Betasamosake Simpson) 的作品,她提出了一个关键观点,即我们所说的气候变化并不是一个新的挑战,而是一个与新世界一样古老的挑战,“是殖民主义和积累型社会造成的一系列更长的生态灾难的一部分”。这篇文章与我的感觉产生了共鸣,即想象力是人类集体记忆的功能,或者正如哈里斯所说,解释社会学家 Nikitah Okembe-RA Imani 的话,“那些研究被压制的东西的人可以看到未来。”

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